Ethiopian Hit Parade Vol 1

Reissue of the original ethiopian vinyl album / Réedition du vinyle originale éthiopienAfter releasing around fifty 45 rpm singles and his first 33 rpm album (Ethiopian Modern Instrumental Hits AELP 10, re-released by Heavenly Sweetness HL092VL), Amha Esthèté set about compiling his best 45s on a series of now legendary albums (the originals are impossible to find) in 1972.An audacious, funky outlaw, a music lover and an entrepreneur in tune with the baby-boomer generation, young Amha Esthèté (he was only twenty-four when he launched his label) will be remembered as the instigator of a peaceful revolution thick with soul and rock’n’roll.The tracks on this first volume celebrate pioneers of modern Ethiopian groove such as Girma Bèyènè, Seyfu Yohannes, Tèshomè Meteku, Menelik Wèsnatchèw, Mulatu Astatq and Muluken Melesse, alongside tradi-modern singers representing Amhara (Essatu Tèssèmma) and Oromo culture, so rich and so long marginalised (Abbèbè Tèssèmma and Gèmètchu Itana).